Firms doing business in foreign institutional environments face pressures to gain social acceptance (commonly referred to as legitimacy) and difficulty in evaluating market information, both of which undercut firm performance. In this... more
Firms doing business in foreign institutional environments face pressures to gain social acceptance (commonly referred to as legitimacy) and difficulty in evaluating market information, both of which undercut firm performance.
In this article, the authors argue that firms can design governance strategies to deal with foreign institutions to
secure both social acceptance and firm performance. Using a Chinese sample of manufacturers that export
products to various foreign markets through local distributors, the authors develop and test a model that bridges the effects of institutional environments and governance strategy on channel performance. Specifically, they find that firms can use two governance strategies, contract customization and relational governance, to deal with both legitimacy and efficiency issues and to safeguard channel performance. Thus, international channel management of legitimacy and efficiency in foreign marketing channels.
It has been argued that the new form of relational governance might lead to a substantial deficit of democratic accountability, but in previous studies less attention has been paid to what accountability is and how to systematically... more
It has been argued that the new form of relational governance might lead to a substantial deficit of democratic accountability, but in previous studies less attention has been paid to what accountability is and how to systematically analyse it before announcing there are accountability deficits. In order to advance the knowledge of accountability and relational governance, this paper examines the notion of accountability and adopts a conceptual framework of public accountability established by Mark Bovens to conduct a case study of Eindhoven city-regional governance. Eindhoven city-region has been recognised as a successful story of high-tech development and its success is a result of a new form of relational governance—close collaboration between different levels of government and other parties, including high-tech firms and knowledge institutes. Major focus is put on the establishment and operation of the Brainport organizations, which perfectly represents the new form of relational governance in Eindhoven city-region. By mapping its networks of accountability and assessing its accountability arrangement, this paper finds that the degree of the Brainport organizations’ accountability toward the municipal councils differs from municipality to municipality. While the councils of municipal stakeholders of Brainport Development NV may use municipal regular planning and control cycle of annual memorandum, reports, and budget to influence the content and financial frameworks of Brainport organizations’ year plan to certain degree, the councils of non-stakeholder municipalities in Eindhoven city-region can hardly ever influence the decision making of the Brainport organizations. From either the democratic or the learning perspective, the institutional arrangement of the Brainport organizations insufficiently satisfy the criteria of accountability. This indicates large space for improvement. Further, the case study results remind us that comparing to the traditional governance mode the nature of relational governance is rather dynamic. It is a learning by doing process and is constantly shaped by the alteration of national policy as well as of the changing agreements between the municipalities. Thus, it deserves continuously monitoring and investigating the change of city-regional institutional setting and its influences on the accountability arrangement of the relational governance.
This chapter presents the emergence of relationality as an individual and collective capacity that has the potential to enable transformative adaptation to meet future climate challenges. Given that people create the social systems that... more
This chapter presents the emergence of relationality as an individual and collective capacity that has the potential to enable transformative adaptation to meet future climate challenges. Given that people create the social systems that influence their lives, the capacity for adaptation to climate change may be viewed as both an individual attribute constructed through social learning and knowledge exchange and a fundamental component of an enabling environment of social institutions. Governance of climate adaptation, therefore, requires a deeper consideration of the moral and ethical motivation and behaviour of participants. The concept of relationality may be operationalized in governance as capacity building through transformative dialogue processes within and among stakeholders designed to generate relational responsibility. Five governance approaches are briefly examined for their potential to facilitate the emergence of relationality including: i) polycentric ii) middle-out, iii) collaborative, iv) transformational, and v) experimental governance. Key attributes of these processes are synthesized into a relational governance model. Together, these concepts are used to examine two case studies from New South Wales (NSW) Australia that illustrate that relationality can be enabled and expressed in existing forms of governance. This is the case when government is prepared to experiment and improvise adaptation practices across scales and contexts and embrace the norms, values, relations, ways of thinking, paradigms, and mental models that a diversity of actors can collectively bring to bear on a complex problem. These kinds of approaches need to become normalized across formal and informal adaptation governance.
This study aims to examine the mechanisms that connect manufacturers' long-term orientation toward suppliers to outsourcing performance. Using a data set collected from 244 manufacturing companies operating in China, this study tests... more
This study aims to examine the mechanisms that connect manufacturers' long-term orientation toward suppliers to outsourcing performance. Using a data set collected from 244 manufacturing companies operating in China, this study tests several proposed hypotheses. The results of this study reveal that: 1) long-term orientation has a positive impact on the governance mechanism (i.e. both contractual and relational governance) and supplier development, subsequently enhancing outsourcing performance; 2) supplier development not only enhances outsourcing performance directly, but also does so indirectly by promoting both contractual and relational governance. This study contributes to current theory of outsourcing relationship management and further provides practical insights into the mechanisms that help manufacturers enhance outsourcing performance.
Relational governance is argued by many authors to positively affect performance exchange between business partners. Investigating the supplier side of the dyad, this study focuses on the effect of behavior uncertainty on the relationship... more
Relational governance is argued by many authors to positively affect performance exchange between business partners. Investigating the supplier side of the dyad, this study focuses on the effect of behavior uncertainty on the relationship between relational exchange supported by trust and the outcome of the exchange-negotiations and monitoring costs that occur during bargaining and ex post arrangements. Moderated multiple regression analyses is employed to test the model on primary data collected from a sample of 170 Albanian farmers engaged in cultivation and collection of medicinal aromatic plants. Findings show empirical support for the proposition that the adoption of relational exchange lowers ex post transaction costs. It also demonstrates that behavior uncertainty acts as a quasi-moderator, wherein it impacts both directly and indirectly the ex post transaction costs. The role of uncertainty in shaping relational ties, outcomes, and implications is further discussed.
This paper articulates the relational capacity of the nation-state, in particular the strategic coupling with the private sector and the role of state-private sector interactions, as the main force that facilitated the formation of a... more
This paper articulates the relational capacity of the nation-state, in particular the strategic coupling with the private sector and the role of state-private sector interactions, as the main force that facilitated the formation of a high-technology industry cluster, Teheran Valley (TV) in Seoul, Korea. A cluster of ICT entrepreneurs sprouted in a business district in Seoul during the post-1997 financial crisis economic downturn. Unlike the prototypical state-led top-down high-technology industry cluster development, a historic analysis shows that behind this seemingly serendipitous rise of TV lay two decades of the Korean government’s efforts to build the ICT industry sector and the dialectic interplay between the state and ICT entrepreneurs. In the process, the Korean state continuously revised its mode of governing the ICT industry sector, which I term ‘relational governance’: During the period between 1980 and the early 2000s of the industrial upgrading, the governance system of the ICT industry sector shifted from centralized planning to selective de-regulation through close partnership with ICT entrepreneurs, and then later to a more flexible mode of governance where the state re-centralized ICT policy making functions, but devised indirect ways of supporting the emerging ICT SMEs.
This thesis aims to shed light on two streams of project management research that are rapidly gaining importance: the first is project governance and the second is the emerging concept of Benefits Realization Management (BRM). Both... more
This thesis aims to shed light on two streams of project management research that are rapidly gaining importance: the first is project governance and the second is the emerging concept of Benefits Realization Management (BRM). Both concepts are at the forefront of the fairly recent drive to revisit and re-conceptualize the theory and practice of project management, as evidenced by comprehensive initiatives such as Rethinking Project Management, which was a two-year research program (2004-2006) funded by the UK Government that involved a research network of academicians and practitioners working to extend and enrich project management theory in accordance with the developing practice. A key recommendation of said initiative is to shift focus from product creation to value creation. This is fueled by the increasingly large body of evidence that the majority of projects fail to meet success criteria. Adding to the urgency is the increasing pressure from business managers for projects to justify their value contribution to the organization. In this context, project governance and BRM are vital for ensuring that projects deliver expected business benefits and value. In doing so, these concepts help align project outcomes with organizational strategy. This study aims to address an important gap in the literature: the relationships between project governance and BRM, and their effects on project success. These relationships were studied based on 326 responses from Pakistan’s burgeoning IT & Software sector, which is increasingly becoming vital for the country’s future economic growth as Pakistan transitions from an industrial to service-based economy. The findings of this study indicate that the aspects of project governance included in this study have a positive significant effect on both BRM and Project Success. Also, it is found that BRM mediates the relationship between two aspects of project governance, namely Relational Governance and Governance of Project Management (GoPM), and Project Success. The results supports the overall proposition of this study that strong project governance creates the context in which effective BRM can occur. For the theory of project management, specifically project governance and BRM, this study hopes to contribute much needed empirical evidence to the literature and responds to recent calls for research on BRM. Additionally, this study attempts to adapt a scale for the GoPM concept, which fills an important gap in the existing operationalizations of different aspects of project governance and may prove useful for future academic studies. For the practice of project management, this study hopes to initiate a discussion on how project governance and BRM may be integrated to support the achievement of organizational strategic objectives through projects and programs. Furthermore, this research aims to assess the current levels of, and create awareness of the developments in, project governance and BRM in Pakistan. This should help organizations to not only improve the success rates of their projects but also to extract business value from projects.
